My family, like many with a rising senior in high school, is trying to decide what to do about her need for more freedom in the year prior to college. To her, that freedom relies on having her own car.
As an electrical engineer who actually used to build things for a living, and still tinkers with many things, I have turned to some past interests in the search for a practical alternative to yet another gas-guzzling, CO2 creating vehicle. Our search is something I started keeping track of on our family web site.
What prompted me to write to The Story is the upcoming visit of Charlie Garlow to the RTP area in early June during his http://www.funruninthesun.org/ tour with a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) built from a kit. This is the start of a cross-country excursion for Charlie to promote practical, affordable alternative PEV designs that are here today, like the BugE. There are dozens of other people here in Central NC with either eBikes or versions of these 3 wheel electric vehicles and dozens more with electric cars. Charlie and his entourage will be showing a practical 1 or two person, partially enclosed PEV which someone like me can build from a kit for as little as $5000!
People like Charlie meet monthly here in the Triangle (Central NC) and work on their conversions and swap stories all while believing deep down that the switch to EVs, and especially to smaller, MUCH more efficient Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs) is a must for our society! That is a common bond, all of us believe that PEVs are one of the very key answers to our energy and environmental dilemna: how to satisfy the demand by more people for the freedom to travel but reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption. Bicycles alone are a very small piece of the solution for a small set of people, but hybrid eBikes, and other small PEVs, especially small Personal Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) that are concept vehicles today are, or will be, within financial reach as affordable alternative transportation for many, many people across the globe!
I am neither the most articulate nor the most zealous in pursuing this piece of a solution to our population's need to be mobile, yet responsible in using energy. I do hope that you consider interviewing Charlie Garlow on his way through NC in June, whether our story makes it through your reviews or not!
Here is a map of Charlie's expected route, the actual start date of his departure from the DC area is not clear yet, I expect that he will arrive in NC sometime between 6June and 9June if he starts from the DC area as expected on 5 or 6June.
Thank you again for such an inspiring program which airs the stories of so many people around our country!
Table of Contents
Sent to TheStory.org early May2010
My family, like many with a rising senior in high school, is trying to decide what to do about her need for more freedom in the year prior to college. To her, that freedom relies on having her own car.As an electrical engineer who actually used to build things for a living, and still tinkers with many things, I have turned to some past interests in the search for a practical alternative to yet another gas-guzzling, CO2 creating vehicle. Our search is something I started keeping track of on our family web site.
What prompted me to write to The Story is the upcoming visit of Charlie Garlow to the RTP area in early June during his http://www.funruninthesun.org/ tour with a Personal Electric Vehicle (PEV) built from a kit. This is the start of a cross-country excursion for Charlie to promote practical, affordable alternative PEV designs that are here today, like the BugE. There are dozens of other people here in Central NC with either eBikes or versions of these 3 wheel electric vehicles and dozens more with electric cars. Charlie and his entourage will be showing a practical 1 or two person, partially enclosed PEV which someone like me can build from a kit for as little as $5000!
People like Charlie meet monthly here in the Triangle (Central NC) and work on their conversions and swap stories all while believing deep down that the switch to EVs, and especially to smaller, MUCH more efficient Personal Electric Vehicles (PEVs) is a must for our society! That is a common bond, all of us believe that PEVs are one of the very key answers to our energy and environmental dilemna: how to satisfy the demand by more people for the freedom to travel but reduce emissions and reduce energy consumption. Bicycles alone are a very small piece of the solution for a small set of people, but hybrid eBikes, and other small PEVs, especially small Personal Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs) that are concept vehicles today are, or will be, within financial reach as affordable alternative transportation for many, many people across the globe!
I am neither the most articulate nor the most zealous in pursuing this piece of a solution to our population's need to be mobile, yet responsible in using energy. I do hope that you consider interviewing Charlie Garlow on his way through NC in June, whether our story makes it through your reviews or not!
Here is a map of Charlie's expected route, the actual start date of his departure from the DC area is not clear yet, I expect that he will arrive in NC sometime between 6June and 9June if he starts from the DC area as expected on 5 or 6June.
Thank you again for such an inspiring program which airs the stories of so many people around our country!
Best, Mark
Answers to questions on TheStory.org
Other contacts:Charlie Garlow, http://www.funruninthesun.org , cgarlow@funruninthesun.org
Jerry Asher, http://www.spiritofdc.com/ , jasher@funruninthesun.org
What do I do for a living:
Design and build solutions with (virtual) pencil and paper, then build it with bolts, wires and computers: I'm an Engineer!
Other submissions
Sent short note to "State of Things" mid-day interview show.Related Links